Benban Solar Park 1 up and running

Renewable energy
producer, Alcazar Energy said that the
Alcazar Energy Egypt Solar 1 (AEES1) PV project, located in Benban Solar Park
in Aswan, Egypt is one of four developments being undertaken by the energy
producer, with each having a capacity of 64 MWp all adding up to a total of 256
MWp.

The projects, part of the Nubian Suns development scheme led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the Government of Egypt aims at apart from influencing private sector capital and expertise, to support the goal of generating 20% electricity from renewable resources by the year 2022.

The solar park comprising of 6 million solar panels (32 sub-projects)
will have a total output of 1.5 GW.

Renewable energy producer, Alcazar
Energy has announced the completion and commencement of commercial operation of
its Alcazar Energy Egypt Solar 1 (AEES1) PV project, located in Benban Solar
Park in Aswan, Egypt.

According to a statement from the
company, AEES1 is one of the four projects being developed by the energy
producer in Benban, each with a capacity of 64 MWp (a total of 256 MWp) which
are part of the Nubian Suns development scheme led by the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) in unison with the World Bank, Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Government of Egypt.

Commenting on the commercial
operation of AEES1, Daniel Calderon, Co-Founder & CEO of Alcazar Energy
said: “It is with great pride that Alcazar Energy can confirm that AEES1 is the
first of thirty projects from the Round 2 FIT programme to realise timely
commercial operation within budget.”

“The completion of AEES1 marks an
important milestone for our company and we are fortunate to play a role in a
programme of this scale which is testament to the spirit of partnership and
cooperation required from governments, developers, investors and lenders in
mobilising large infrastructure projects such as Benban.”

He added that together with their
projects in Jordan and Egypt, the combined capacity will reach 411 MW in the
region for the company.

Daniel Lancha, Head of Delivery &
Operations at Alcazar Energy further stated: “Over 2,000 direct and indirect
jobs have been created during construction across the four projects, with our
three remaining projects currently underway, targeting commercial operation by
end of February.”

“21 different contractors and
subcontractors were appointed on the project, 16 of which were Egyptian
companies. At its peak the AEES1 project employed 685 people, 274 of whom were
from the local communities and 286 from the rest of Egypt,” he added.

AEES1’s project cost is estimated at
$68.6 million, financed by loans from IFC, lead arranger, Asian Infrastructure
Investment bank (AIIB), African Development Bank Group and CDC Group and equity
from Alcazar Energy. The project was constructed by a joint venture between TSK
and Enviromena.

The statement also said that
together, all four of the Benban solar PV projects are expected to generate
approximately $31.5 million in gas savings from the displacement of fossil
fuels, in addition to saving 311,500 tones of carbon dioxide and 680,300 cubic
metre of water per year.